Friday, September 26, 2008

My friend Julie helped me make all these little Tofu Baby miniatures! Aren't they cute??? Some are little charms that I am going to make into cute necklaces. What do you think? This is before they were fired and in the "clay drying" stage. I am using all of Julie's pictures cos they are so fab!

Here I am with the Tofu Babies. Oh, and we made one Nilla and one Molar. Audrey made Molar, Julie's family cat. Well, Molar is one and Skillet is the other. But that is a whole other story right there...!!

For those of you that might not know, Tofu Baby is a character I made up for my Flagpole comics. You can read about them at the Flagpole - and you can read the comments and letters people write, too.

And ta da! Here they are in all their tofu glory!! I think they look really good! I plan to take some more pictures of them very soon. Today was a little cloudy and now it is dark outside. But! Raoul should be home very soon. Yay!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

September 20 marks the date my friend Adriana married Mark. Mark is a Storm Trooper (yes, he is one of "them") so I drew them this picture. I was going to add more color, but in this case, less is obviously more. I am not sure if Adriana reads this or not, but she should be on a sweet honeymoon right now, sans internet, right?

Terri and I are getting ready for our trip to Seattle for the Plush You exhibition. We are so excited! Seattle! Yay! It will be nice to get out of town. I can't wait to explore the shops and buy myself cute things in a new place.

In other news I am totally loving Makool's clothing!! Sooo cute. I think instead of buying Blythe dolls, I am going to buy clothes. So I can dress like a doll.

Monday, September 22, 2008

I am looking forward to October and autumn, so I had these little pumpkins made into one inch buttons thanks to Becky. I think they are the perfect accessory to get into the spirit (pun intended, haha) of Halloween! I know I will be sporting one in about a week! You can get some, too, just have a peek at Shop Sugar Cookie Etsy, or my very own personal website.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Christopher and Tia mentioned my little Talking Birdie Notepads on their fabulous blog! They noticed these at my Etsy! Thanks guys! I love the blog post, too - it is on a subject dear to my heart, pen pals. When I was in high school, I used to have lots of pen pals. Really! I had about fifty or so on and off. Some of them I know to this day and many I have met in person. Some even now live in the same town as me! How funny is that? In fact, I just heard from Maryanne in New York (holla!) today! I love Maryanne!! She's the best. I also had many overseas pen pals, too, and I had the pleasure of meeting them as well (Alban and Nathalie and Katy - how do you say "holla" in French?). I made some really good friendships through my pen pals. Now I think back and wonder what did we write about so much??

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Well! I have had a busy weekend even though Raoul is still away for a little while longer. I have been sewing like crazy trying to get some new goodies ready for the holidays. I guess I am feeling the push cos I know it will be my turn to be out of town in October! Above is a new fabric design I made - I am obsessing over making perfect repeat patterns! Making repeats work is like a puzzle to me.

Now that it is Sunday, I will do the (sound the trumpets!) Weekend Wind Down.

FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - Making some new goodies with Julie.

WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - Having Raoul gone and not getting my printer to work after updating my OS. (I am a nerd, but I figured it out - thanks Greg!!)

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - "Ooh, I got the lum-peh throa!" and "Poof! Be gone!"

FAVORITE MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - The Grit was extra good on my birthday, thanks to Jay and Terri!

WHAT'S YOUR WEEKLY RESOLUTION FOR THIS WEEK?MISSY - Clean up before Raoul's return.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST "WASTE OF TIME" LAST WEEK?MISSY - Trying to make my scanner scan after the OS update. Sheesh!!

SOUNDTRACK FOR THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - Lykke Li (finally got a new record and finally found it in this town!!), the Monkees, Microphones or Mt. Eerie, Music Tapes, Laura Marling, Stereolab.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

This is only one of four new designs I have added to Shop Sugar Cookie on Etsy, and soon I will add them to my website, too. These are four notepads I drew up, and the designs include Talking Birdies, Hello Ice Cream Cones, Hey Hi Banana, and Cupcakes. These are my most favorite ones yet (thanks, Dad!!) and they are all so pretty!

I added this little fellow to my Etsy, too. He is a little green bear wearing flannel stripes! He is so cute! He also has vintage cat and doggie ribbon around his neck for an extra special touch.

I am just having a cup of tea this morning and Nilla is having a time watching squirrels chase each other in the front yard! Tails are in the air, people! I saw it myself.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Raoul reminded me that Thursdays are Nilla Photo Days, so here is one from my archives. This is Nilla at my old house sunning herself in the window! This is an older picture of her, but I will have to find an old picture of her maybe for next week, so readers can see how much she has grown. Sometimes when I look at her I can still see her kitten face!

I am also posting to tell you about Fierce and Nerdy, a very cool website my good friend Ernessa created! Get some "chic in your geek" and read up! My comic can be found here.

Monday, September 15, 2008

At work we are tracking Raoul's travels with my friend Carol's map of China. Carol collects all my buttons, so here he is in Xiamen. Xiamen is a pretty city, right on the water. When we were there it was hot and humid! I am sure it has not changed at all...

I forgot all about doing the usual Weekend Wind Down, so here goes. Apologies for being a day late! Maybe Raoul will fill his in at a later date... Or maybe I should fill it in with what he might say!

WHAT WAS YOUR BEST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - Birthday surprise pressies and cake from Raoul!RAOUL - Dinner at Latina, a Brazilian restaurant in Shanghai.

WHAT WAS THE WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - Raoul off to China!RAOUL - Missy not coming with me to China!

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE PAST WEEK?MISSY - "Naked Camp Stories"RAOUL - "Looby" (as seen in an elevator in Dehua, a misspelling of "lobby")

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Well, even though Raoul is not here this week, I suppose I will have to post about what's been going on lately. I have been productive, at least a little bit, with Raoul away on a business trip... Let's see...

My Spoonflower order came in finally! Yay! I think it looks fabulous! I love the colors, even though some friends said the reds are not pure red (they are more of an orange-y, think Pantone 199 or so, which is fine by me) and the black is grey-ish. I have no problem with the color, and they really are cute.

I did two of my designs - the little whales and multi-colored diamonds. Here are my patterns.

And here is the fabric! What do you think?

I worked on a little bag!

My photos are so-so of the bag. The strange thing is, the walls are pink in that room and no matter how much I color correct in Photoshop, they just never look as pink or pretty as in real life. I think maybe it is my camera, so any and all camera suggestions would be helpful for me! I am not sure if I would like a digital SLR or a nicer point-and-shoot. Decisions, decisions...

Earlier today my friend Julie and her daughter Audrey helped me work on a special project. I can't show you what it is, but believe me, it sure is cute!!! You should check out Julie's amazing jewelry, too. She is so talented!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Our LAST DAY in China - Missy and I got up before the crack of dawn, packed up all our junk, and grabbed an early morning cab to the train station:

A strip of lights tracked our progress towards the airport:

The Hong Kong International Airport was decked out and ready for the Olympic games:

A nice sentiment on the moving sidewalk:

We could not get over the spacious hanger-like ceilings in the airport. We waited patiently by our gate for our flight to Beijing:

Missy and Xie Xie hunkered down for our marathon flight back home:

As Missy slept, the plane flew out and back over Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour:

Before we knew it, we were back in Beijing, rushing to catch our flight to Newark, NJ:

We made our plane in the nick of time...and then we sat on the runway for over an hour. The hour delay caused us to almost miss our connecting flight in Newark to Atlanta. Fortunately, we eventually made it back home, after an entire day of traveling. I had run out of batteries for my camera, but it didn't matter anyways. We were way too tired and frazzled to take photos on the trip back, and instead, entertained ourselves by trying to watch as many movies as we could before succumbing to sleep (we managed to watch JUNO and LARS AND THE REAL GIRL back-to-back before conking out).

THE END! Finally.

And now...I'm getting ready to fly back to China once again! I'm leaving this friday, flying from Atlanta straight into Shanghai in just 13 hours. Seems like we were just there last week. Unfortunately, Missy won't be coming with us on this trip...I'll miss my traveling partner! Worse still, I'll be in the middle of China when Missy's birthday comes around on the 17th. Whaaaaa! I ended up giving Missy her birthday presents tonight, because tomorrow I'm going to be busy packing and running around getting last minute details nailed down. Ugh. I'm not even sure if I'll have time to post tomorrow. If not, then I guess you won't be hearing from me for a couple of weeks. I'm sure Missy will post while I'm away, so please check back to see what is going on